'Violet Pulse' - [Aoi/Uruha] 2/5

[colberry]

Title:  Violet Pulse
Chapter:  2/5
Description:  Eight-years-old, Yuu blushed -- an innocent red dusting his cheeks as he ducked his head away from Kouyou's sight.  He swallowed, his lungs stammering because he had these weird, wiggly things inside of him that made his stomach clench.  And made his heart beat fast.  And made Kouyou feel right.  Somehow.
Pairing:  Aoi/Uruha
Notes:  Five chapters.  Five ages.  How sometimes two people should be together despite everything.  First request-fic!  Please enjoy jokerock <3

In this chapter:  Thirteen-years-old, it was still awkward; lanky limbs bumping against each other and pink dusting their faces.  Preteen breaths became shaky, erratic, as Yuu leaned in close to wipe the red from Kouyou's lips.  "Don't tell my mom."







Age 13


He was seeing spots, flashing colors whizzing past him.  His back was against the grass, eyes snapped open to try and catch each one in his sight.  Blue, orange, yellow -- black, black, Kouyou.

"What are you doing?"

Yuu blinked, the colors disappearing into the clouds and being replaced by Kouyou's owlish eyes tilted head and crooked smile.  The younger boy leaned over him from the side, shin guards from practice still strapped to his lean calves.  Yuu waited a beat before answering, content to throw a hand up into the air above him and let his fingers attempt to brush the sky.  Kouyou watched.  Won't you be my sky --

Yuu's other hand fisted in the grass.

"Teach me."

Like a flickering, fickle comet, Kouyou disappeared from view.  Yuu frowned and sat up, looking off to his right to see the black-haired boy crinkle his brow at him.  He was squinting slightly from the afternoon sun that the clouds had refused to hold back.  Yuu watched how his teeth fiddled with his bottom lip in confusion.  Something, that same something that often plagued him these days, fluttered in his chest.

Kouyou let go of his lip, “Teach you what?”

Yuu sat up more, decision already steadfast in his mind.  His hands twitched at the thought of doing something, grabbing something, twisting into Kouyou’s hair because it always looked so tousled and soft from blazing away in this wind and he had always wanted to – 
Yuu stopped.  His eyes widened and he snapped his blushing visage away from Kouyou’s now concerned gaze.

He blurted, "Soccer."  Everything.

And it was the first time (certainly not the last time) that Kouyou merely nodded his head and said yes.

&&

Yuu's mother began to think her son had a girlfriend.  It was thirteen years too early for her tastes, but she couldn't pinpoint any other reason as to why the aloof preteen would now suddenly race out the door, leave for hours on end, only to return with grass stains on his back.

She frowned with the small, gray shirt in her hands.  The washing machine sat idle, ready and waiting, as she turned the fabric over and over.  Emerald streaks splattered across every inch of its surface.

A sigh escaped her.

&&

"Yuu~!  We can't play now!"

Yuu turned around roughly, Kouyou's dainty wrist still in his clutches as he dragged him off to their designated 'spot', "And why not?"

Kouyou set his sights to the ground, nibbling at his lip like he always did whenever Yuu would regard him like that -- frustrated, happy, angry, peaceful, content, everything.  The younger boy looked up, his hunched posture making the normally taller boy short in comparison to Yuu's confident stride.

"Coach'll get mad."

"Do you always do what others tell you to?"

"I do what you tell me to."

Yuu paused and looked at Kouyou, eyebrow raised.  The black-haired soccer player was gazing unto him with honesty radiating bright in his eyes.  Preteen innocence in all its sacred scarcity.  Suddenly, the boy's wrist felt so delicate.  Fragile.  He could squeeze it, tug too hard and snap it to pieces if he wasn't careful.  It didn't matter that the other was stronger than him most days -- pinning him easily to the ground when he got out of hand.

He didn't want to break Kouyou.

He let go of his wrist.

His fingers felt cold so he crossed his arms tightly across his chest, "You shouldn't."

Kouyou lamented the heat gone from his skin, but stepped closer to Yuu just in case he ran away (because Akira had run away), "What if I want to?"

Yuu watched wearily as Kouyou padded closer, cleats digging into the dirt and rooting him there.  Permanent holes burned into the ground.  We were here.

But Yuu knew that Kouyou wouldn't always stay, because so many people had already left.  Yuu uncrossed his arms and frowned, "Don't listen to me, Kouyou."

Yuu turned away before his eyes betrayed him and watched the younger boy's face fall.  Watched those perfect-imperfect lips part in horror that Yuu would just leave-leave-leave.

He got as far as the fallen log he and Kouyou had deemed as their 'safe spot' for tag before he heard swift footsteps behind him.

Yuu whipped around, anger igniting in his ebony eyes at the fact that the sound made his heart so hopeful, "What are you doing."

And Kouyou merely smiled, sky echoing in his grin, "Not listening."

And then he ran ahead, past the stunned and speechless Yuu whose spitfire had been effectively snuffed out, and towards the abandoned clearing that both had deemed 'the spot'.

And Yuu ran after him.

Lungs crackling against embers, Kouyou turned around, beaming brightly when he saw Yuu scramble towards him.  With a mischievous glint flashing in his chocolate eyes, the taller boy pumped his legs faster, years of soccer letting him fly, fly, fly.

"I always wanted to be a bird."  Yuu glanced up from the encyclopedia they had stolen from Kouyou's dad.  They had wanted to look up 'lolly water'.

Kouyou was almost a dot in the distance as Yuu felt his calves burn and esophagus dry up.  He could hear his laughter, something that reminded him almost of home, almost of the moon.  He didn't know why.

"A bird?  I don't like birds."

The trees parted and Yuu burst from the thorny shrubs that nipped at his bare legs, into the clearing.  He licked his lips, absently deciding he'd steal Kouyou's water bottle when it stopped feeling like his feet were going to fall off.  Sweat lapped at his skin, lithe fingers that were slowly becoming sharp and defined pushed his growing, raven locks from his forehead.  A giggle tore his eyes away from the spinning ground to the willowy figure standing haughtily in the distance.  Mid-afternoon light billowed around him, casting off a dreadful illusion of ethereal wonder.  And Yuu found himself enraptured.

Kouyou lolled his head towards him, hitting his shoulder and letting his locks splay across the older's t-shirt, "Why not?"

Kouyou only kept smiling, eyes still laughing, as he slowly walked toward the panting Yuu.  He was glistening from sweat as well, the hot summer day making his shirt stick and his heart race.  Close enough to almost shake hands, Kouyou finally straightened his spine to his full height and peered down at Yuu. 

The smile slowly lifted into a playful smirk.

Yuu chuckled lowly before he pounced.

Yuu bit his lip, a rare show of vulnerability that Kouyou didn't fail to miss, and murmured softly, "They always run away."

Kouyou gasped as his back hit the ground.  He could feel Yuu's elbow in his stomach, the other's legs intertwining with his own as they rolled around in the grass like they were nine again.  The elder couldn't bite back his smile as he pinned the other beneath him, hips ground into the boy's narrow waist.

Grass stained knees knocked together.

Kouyou's frantic breath was slowly calming as they lay there, a soft fanning upon his neck.  He could feel the wet t-shirt against his palms.  It was disgusting and beautiful.

Yuu closed his eyes and leaned in. 

The book in his hands was getting heavier.  Something prickly was making his eyes water.

Their foreheads locked together, connected in the tousled grass.  Yuu's fingers felt numb.  Kouyou's hair was soft and right, just like he always thought.

Kouyou politely ignored the clear rivulets staining Yuu's cheeks and merely drawled out with a gentle smile, "But if I was a bird, I'd take you with me."

&&

Kouyou had always looked so pretty in red.

The thought made Yuu embarrassingly avert his gaze to his fidgeting hands.  He dragged his thumb along his right knuckle, pretending they were bowed lips.  His brow furrowed.

Was it okay like this?  To pine and feel light when that slightly ditzy, always gentle boy briefly touched his shoulder, if only to prattle on about the newest video game he possessed?  Or when he laughed so hard that his head would collapse into the hollow of Yuu's neck.  Was it okay to want to keep him there, keep them both suspended in space with starlight being the only thing that could touch them?  Protect him and embrace him like those foreign movies depicted that they had watched together in stilted silence?

Yuu fidgeted some more, squirming on the park bench as the girl from his grade quickly bowed in front of him and hurried in the opposite direction, cheeks burning.  The pink carnation lay crumpled in his lap.  "I like you -- please like me back, Shiroyama-kun!"

The raven-haired boy plucked a roseate petal and watched it flutter meekly to the cement below.

He liked red better.

&&

Kouyou's lips were red.

Vermillion was splashed on them, dribbling towards his chin, and Yuu couldn't stop shaking.

"It's not that bad..."

The elder boy watched how his hand trembled, how Kouyou was placing his fingers onto of the pallid digits in a feeble attempt to soothe.  But his face was all torn up, all broken and sticky with crimson. 

They were crumpled against the brick building of Kouyou's middle school.  The younger was panting slightly, the bruises from the older boys who had encircled him were still pulsing.  He wanted to lean against Yuu's chest, drown out the throb with Yuu's heart.

But he wouldn't ask.

Yuu seethed silently, remembering the grotesque scene of Kouyou on the ground as one of the brutes tried to kick in his teeth.  How the twelve-and-a-half year-old hadn't screamed.  How he wasn't fast enough.  How he was late in meeting Kouyou in the first place -- the plastic bag filled with bird feathers was left stranded somewhere to their left, dropped in haste.

Kouyou had his head lowered as he sat against the wall, watching how the blood was dripping from somewhere in him to the pavement.  Gray steadily became specked, an ugly Picasso tragedy that made bile churn in Yuu's throat.

He found himself tilting Kouyou's head up, thumb and forefinger softly pressing into his chin.  Kouyou's lips parted as they tried to breathe, slathered with red like lipstick smears.

Kouyou poked his tongue out, tried to lap up the excess before wheezing, "They said they didn't like my mouth.  That is was ugly... and weird."

Yuu didn't say anything, just watched as Kouyou's matted hair slid to sweep into his eyes.  He counted each scratch and purple splotch that dappled across his once-milky flesh.

"They said they were going to fix it."

Yuu just stared at Kouyou's misshapen lips, swollen and twisted into a wry smile, "Am I pretty now, Yuu?"

The shorter boy blinked, let his thumb slide along Kouyou's jaw and wipe away the scarlet that dared to touch his smile --

"You'll always be beautiful."

The smile broke and the tears leaked from those desolate, brown eyes.  Yuu let him bury his face into his white school uniform, despising how his own ebony irises were starting to become wet with hate.  He could feel each sob reverberate from Kouyou's ribs to his own.  Red streaked across his ivory shirt and Yuu tangled his fingers into those night-sky tresses.

"I'll take care of you.  'Promise."

Kouyou's bathroom was small and cramped, Yuu decided as he banged his elbow into the poorly placed cabinet yet again, trying to retrieve any sort of adhesive.  Letting his legs dangle idly, the taller boy sat upon the counter, hands gripping its marble edges tight.  Yuu didn't comment on his white knuckles or quivering arms.  Rather, he silently righted himself in front of the other and began to gently apply the ointment he found deep within the vanity.

Kouyou's sunlight was gone, only bare traces of stardust visible in the dim, flickering light above them.  Yuu's fingers were trembling as he caressed each part of Kouyou's bruised skin.  Delicate, shattered.  The fire inside his veins was starting to lick his heart, black taking over his dark, brown eyes.  He didn't like feeling useless.

It was still awkward; lanky limbs bumping against each other and pink dusting their faces.  Preteen breaths became shaky, erratic, as Yuu leaned in close to wipe away the red from Kouyou's lips.

A soft utterance, "Don't tell my mom."

Yuu paused, tearing his eyes away from Kouyou's red staining his fingertips to the boy's nervous gaze.  His face was still swelled, agony painting lovely rivers against his cheeks.  He went to go and bite his lip, that endearing habit whenever Yuu looked at him like that, but he stopped, remembering the ache in his mouth.

In that moment of helplessness, where they were crouched in the bathroom with the door locked, plastic bag of feathers strewn across the floor, Yuu put his hand on Kouyou's knee.

He clutched it with vigor, a promise of something beautiful encased in the touch.

And Kouyou couldn't help but to edge closer, placing his forehead against Yuu's.

Their staggering breaths mingled.  Yuu's wide eyes refused to close -- reaping in the gift of having this being so near.  His nose touched Kouyou's right cheek, felt small hands grip at his shirt, as he heard the other murmur, "Don't tell her, please don't tell her..."

Yuu merely tried to get closer, to wrap Kouyou into his own being.  Shield him, protect him and make him warm when his bones were so horribly cold.  He wanted to press those damn feather he collected (for him) into the broken boy's shoulder blades.  He wanted to tape them tight and tell him to fly and be free and get away from this world.

But before he had a chance, Kouyou let out a choked sob, "Sometimes...just sometimes, I wish I had never been born at all -- "

Yuu dug his fingernails into Kouyou's knee, leaving his own red bruise as he bit out with venom, "Don't you ever fucking say that."

Kouyou lifted his head from the elder boy's and looked at him with disbelieving eyes.  They were round and smudged with tears.  Their innocence was crumbling.

"You said a curse word."

"You said you wanted to die."

"I said only sometimes I do."

Angered, Yuu jerkily pulled back, ending contact, "It doesn't matter if it's sometimes.  'Sometimes' always turns into 'always'."

Kouyou shivered, cold from the drying blood on his body and wrinkled his brow.  Yuu seethed before him, blindly furious and claws unsheathed.  His longer hair was wild, a lion's mane tangled around his face.  His ebony eyes glared over at him and Kouyou tiled his head, whispering:

"Then, what if sometimes I love you?"

The stark sound of the bathroom door slamming shook Kouyou's spine.

&&

It was two days after the incident in the bathroom when Kouyou spotted Yuu waiting for him outside his school.  He could still detect some burnt pink tracing his translucent white shirt and Kouyou wondered if Yuu had worn it today on purpose.  He jogged over, almost tripping over his excited feet, bruised lips pulling into an elated grin.

Though, when Yuu was just a few steps away and in clear view, Kouyou paused.  His smile faltered and his heart began to crack.

But Yuu smiled, really smiled, so bright that Kouyou thought maybe he was looking straight at the blushing moon.  The bruised, blackened eye twinkled just as strongly as Yuu's other untouched one.  The taller boy peered down minutely to see the other's scraped knuckles at his sides.

Yuu held them up, displaying the torn skin with pride.

"We match now, okay?"

&&

Later, when the bruises fade and Kouyou's imperfect lips are "perfect" once again, Yuu challenges him to a race.

"Why?"

"Don't always question everything, weirdo."

The fall air feels crisp in his lungs as Yuu barrels forward.  But really, he's watching Kouyou's back, watching how his hair is like black ribbons streaking in the wind.  It's almost too quick for his eyes.

But wasn't everything that was worth everything too quick to capture?

Sweat clings to his shirt and he absently realizes that they never declared a finish line.

Kouyou looks back at him and laughs.

For a second, his smile was the sun.

I will catch you one day.

&&&

A/N:  Oh, thirteen-year-olds.  Well, I somehow found time to write this despite the total frantic/craziness of college, haha.  I think the writing style differs a tad from the first one, but I think I'll keep switching it up like that.

Anyway, once again, this is for jokerock who requested "Aoi/Uruha, jealousy, childhood, romance, angst and a happy ending" over at jrockyaoi .

Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!

<3

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